For the last four years I have put together a collection of my favorite images of the past year. I seem to think I do this because others do it. I have always felt better when I walk my own path and feel better not jumping off the bridge just because most other do. They are fun to watch though.
I have been viewing many others favorites of 2014 and I do enjoy them for a few minutes anyway. As soon as I am done looking at “their” favorites I move on and seem to forget them as fast as I found them. So when I debated making my own list I thought, why? I don’t really have “favorites” from 2014, every image holds a story for me. There was an Autumn trip to the Smoky Mountains along with multi day outings in the Flint Hills that might be considered highlights. Most all times can be considered a highlight, I even seem to prefer looking at them that way. Memories of the wonderful time out in nature with my camera. Honestly I have never been satisfied with a final short list I come up with. And furthermore it is “my” list. I have no idea if anyone could relate to why I choose what I do, in fact I’m sure you couldn’t.
I would though like to say 2014 ended up being a year of new adventures, new opportunities and new outlooks. That is the important thing. Each and every image I made at that moment was and is a favorite. Over 5,300 times I pressed the shutter release on my Nikon D800 since January 1, 2014. I haven’t check the Canon G11 or my iphone but I would guess another 1,000 or so would show up there. All in all I have nothing to complain about and those numbers are right on pace with the past 8 years.
Checking the gallery site I see there are 151 images that were added in 2014, Yippee! There may be one or two more added from my New Year’s Eve outing. I have only glanced at them so far but I see one that may make the cut. I consider this a very successful year. My goal year after year is a minimum of 100 new additions to the gallery. That isn’t anything I get to gun-ho about. It is very reliant on many factors. I seem to be fairly consistent with a certain success vs. attempt percentage. For those who may be wondering why only 151 out of over 5,000 got added, It really is just a matter of my personal preference. First of all I need to like them. This is the easy part. Not all views of nature in real life translate to the camera sensor the way I would like. These are the attempts and many times are multiple shots of the same scene with slight adjustments. Sometimes I am able to work issues out other times not. When it comes to looking at the image once back at the computer the successes immediately stand out to me. I have a way of culling through images rather quickly that seems to make the winners pop out from the losers. These are images that I feel meet the requirements I have set for my work. Color and contrast are big initial influences to me. I seem to enjoy colorful higher than average contrast imagery. They must also have qualities allowing them to be printed to the standards I have set. Some may never see the printed page while others may see (in the case of this one) a 38 feet reproduction!
I sure don’t won’t to leave you high and dry so I would like to leave you with this slideshow of the complete collection of new additions from 2014. They will play in order from the most recent through the first image taken in 2014. Slideshow music; “Summer Day”, Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
I hope you enjoy them but, more importantly, I would like to wish you all who have chose to stop by and read my ramblings over the last year a very Happy and Prosperous 2015!
